SOUTHSEA GREEN: our pledge to save trees

Sue Stokes

BRIAN KIDD: Killing worms and poorly poinsettias

This week we started a new growing project with the University of Portsmouth which is researching the use of hydroponics in the community. Will send more news on that next week, except to say if you have an interest please pop into the garden and talk to Jean or message us on Facebook to get involved.

We have also just signed the Charter for Trees, Woods and People, a campaign to protect our trees, green spaces, and woodland. No need to explain its importance, but possibly it is not top of everyone'slist of campaigning groups.

Yet it's the trees that will stand up for us when the floods come and the water rises. Apart from this they support ecosystems in every one of them large and small. Just think of all our families as if we were trees and the people we support. I read that when a tree is hurt, in a wood, the surrounding trees send help and nutrients through an advanced network via their roots.

We have all spent happy hours climbing trees and dreaming of sitting in the tops of them if not in our own tree house.